78-year-old woman headhunted as teacher

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A 78-year-old woman who retired in 1990 has started back at work teaching Swedish to immigrants after being headhunted by a recruitment company.

Wivi Johansson Svanberg, from Åseda in Småland, thought her working life was over. For seventeen years she had lived on her widow's pension, reports Smålands Posten.

Then one day she was called by education company Humanus.

The company was insistent that it wanted her to return to work as a Svenska för Invandrare (SFI) teacher in Åseda. The woman at Humanus told Johansson Svanberg that it was "impossible to find staff in Åseda."

After careful consideration the 78-year-old took up the company's offer, and now works four hours a day, five days a week. She told Smålands Posten that she was full of energy when she returned from work.

"I get up in the mornings, and the fact is I get much more done when I get home," she said.

The 78-year-old said she has a great time with her pupils, who are mainly young men from countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

"They are very nice and we all enjoy ourselves. I feel twenty years younger," she said.

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